


viinir

by MageOfCole



Series: Cole Does Whumptober 2020 [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Agender CT-1409 | Echo, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, CT-1409 | Echo Lives, CT-21-0408 Echo Whump, CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555 Deserved Better, CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555 Lives, CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555 Needs a Hug, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Whump, Fix-It, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Visions, Force-Sensitive CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555, Gen, Get Fucked Palpatine, Reunions, Whump, Whumptober 2020, no order 66
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27031849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageOfCole/pseuds/MageOfCole
Summary: (run)He sees Echo running towards the shuttle, and Fives wants to scream for his brother to stop, to come back because it’s supposed to be Fives who is the reckless one. He can only watch as the flames swallow them.(No.9 - For The Greater Good)
Relationships: CT-21-0408 | Echo & CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555, CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555 & CT-5385 | Tup, CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555 & CT-7567 | Rex
Series: Cole Does Whumptober 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949908
Comments: 26
Kudos: 228





	viinir

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CobraOnTheCob](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobraOnTheCob/gifts).



A part of FIves never left Lola Sayu. The what-ifs haunt him while he sleeps, and Fives sees the exact moment in perfect clarity. He sees Echo running towards the shuttle, and Fives wants to scream for his brother to stop, to come back because it’s supposed to be _Fives_ who is the reckless one. He sees the moment the missile hits the ship in slow motion, and no matter how close he gets to pulling Echo away from the explosion, no matter how loud he screams, it doesn’t change the fact that it always ends with Fives staring at Echo’s burnt, crumpled helmet. Sometimes, their body is there too, twisted, but surprisingly intact despite the matter that it had been an explosion that killed his brother. Sometimes, Fives has enough time to run for Echo’s helmet, to bring back at least one piece of his brother with him, but when he picks it up a burnt, charred skull rolls out, barely identifiable as his partner.

He always wakes up screaming, begging for the galaxy to take him instead if it meant Echo could have survived. He would have gotten down on his knees and begged for his squadmate’s life if he could.

It’s funny, really, in a painful way, that Fives wasn’t particularly close to Echo before the destruction of the Rishi moon base. _The Domino Twins_ , people called them, and yet they barely got along before their squad was assigned to that outpost. Fives had always been closer to Hevy and Cutup, while Echo had tended to drift towards Droidbait - the outcasts of the outcasts, as Cutup had called them once. They’d been friendly, of course, but not friends - not until it was just the two of them left. Echo had been too high strung and Fives too hot headed - they had clashed more often than not, and it wasn’t until they had both broken that their jagged edges fit together and _clicked_.

And then Echo was gone, and Fives broke even further. Echo was torn away from him and those edges grew sharper, dangerous - more likely to hurt someone than connect. The others tried to help, tried to make a place for him, but it wasn’t the same.

It wasn’t until Tup that Fives realized that it didn’t have to be.

Tup, fresh-faced but already so broken, was different from Echo. He was hurting and alone, and he needed Fives in ways that Fives needed to be needed. And then he was gone too.

Rex did what he could after Echo’s death, but he was still his Captain, still his superior, and he couldn’t be where Fives needed him all the time. He had a Legion to run, hundreds of Vode to look after, and Jedi to watch over. He did what he could, tried to bridge the distance that grew between them and tried to fix what broke on Umbara. It was hard to come to terms with what Krell did to all of them, the brothers that died because of him, and - well, forgiveness had never been Fives’ strong suit. He could try, he _did_ try, but it was hard to forget that Rex had stood aside and let Krell walk all over him.

Echo would have forgiven their Captain immediately, they wouldn’t even have needed an apology. Instead, it’s Fives who is still alive, and it’s not even until after the Sith Lord Chancellor gets himself shot in the back - killed by Rex himself to protect Commander Tano - that Fives can finally forgive his brother for not being able to put Krell down like he should have. It still hurts, of course, but it heals, and Fives wouldn’t hold it against him.

As the War collapses without the Sith Lord playing everyone from the shadows, and Fives gets Tup back, he can’t help but wonder - _hope_ \- that Echo is still out there, somewhere. It’s not likely, of course, because Fives still sees the explosion in his dreams, still watches the fire swallow his brother whole - but it still niggles at him in the back of his thoughts. There wasn’t a body, not even a single trace of one - just a single charred helmet laying near the wreckage, intact and empty. His dreams change as time passes, and the flames vanish. It’s replaced with an invading chill that he can’t escape and the feeling of his thoughts being stripped away and picked apart. It’s like his brain is being scooped out of his head, one small piece at a time until the only thing left is an empty shell.

~~_“Get to the ship!”_ ~~

~~_“Run!”_ ~~

Fives always wakes up, gasping for breath and feeling off-balance, like he had too many limbs. He feels famished and lightheaded, and no matter how much he eats or how warm he gets, he can’t chase away the gnawing hunger and inescapable chill in his bones.

He doesn’t understand why until he sees the stasis pod Echo had been held in for the last year.

Fives shakes as he gathers his too-pale and too-thin brother closer to his chest, offering his own body heat for the limp trooper covered in a thin layer of frost. He’s barely aware of the Bad Batch hurrying around them as Tech works to disconnect Echo from the _computer_ they had been hooked up to without being more damage than had already been done, he barely notices Rex at his side, one hand pressed against Echo’s bony chest, or Kix as he hovers with a scanner - Echo is the only thing he has eyes for. They’re pale, ashen even, and Fives can feel brittle ribs even through his armour. There are wires _everywhere_ , little nodes that blink a steady red light, and all of it is built into Echo’s _body_. Their arm and legs had been replaced with crude, rusting replacements, and Fives could feel the spinal brace, sharp and heavy and probably painful for Echo, against his arm.

 _Little Force gods_ \- he had been so relieved when Rex had burst into his bunk, disheveled and wild-eyed and bringing with him the news that _Echo was alive_. He’d known, deep down, that his brother would be in rough shape, having spent the last year as a prisoner of war, but he had never imagined _this_ . Echo is barely recognizable as the vod they had been - they had been twisted and cut into, their head shaved to make way for the wires the Techno Union had _drilled into his brother’s head_.

In his arms, Echo jerks, coughs, clarity blooming in hazel eyes, and Fives holds them even closer as Tech lets out a noise of triumph. The wires disconnect from Echo’s body with a hiss, and they sag closer to Fives with a wheeze.

Kriff, it felt like it had only been yesterday that he had done this the first time, back when they had found Tup on the lower levels of Tapioca City. It’s not Tup though - it’s Echo who’s in his arms this time, fighting their way back to consciousness after a year of being used as a fucking _computer program_ for the enemy.

“The _ship_!” Echo chokes on a harsh scream, flails, and their prosthesis catches Fives in the chin. He grunts through the pain, head snapping back and he bites his tongue and lets out a sharp curse.

“Kriff, Echo -” he grumbles around the blood in his mouth, and Echo stills, rolling eyes locking onto Fives’ face, “- still got a nasty right hook, _vod_.”

Echo’s harsh, gasping breath slows, calms, and they stare at Fives with wide eyes. “F-Fives?” They stutter, before a bright, unrestrained smile grows on their face. “You came for me.” His brother says in awe, and it breaks his heart.

No, he hadn’t. He hadn’t even known Echo was _alive_ , not until Rex had told him. He had left Echo, abandoned them to the mercies of the Separatists and the Techno Union, and worst of all, he had replaced them.

“Yeah, _vod_.” Fives lies, hugging Echo closer and pressing his nose against their pulse as Rex’s arms curl protectively around them both. “I’m here.”


End file.
